he summit of Europe, and,
later on, at the centre of continents, in a grand parliament of the
intelligence. Something similar has already been seen. The amphictyons
had two sittings a year, one at Delphos the seat of the gods, the other
at Thermopylae, the place of heroes. Europe will have her amphictyons;
the globe will have its amphictyons. France bears this sublime future in
her breast. This is the gestation of the nineteenth century. That which
Greece sketched out is worthy of being finished by France. Listen to me,
you, Feuilly, valiant artisan, man of the people. I revere you. Yes, you
clearly behold the future, yes, you are right. You had neither father
nor mother, Feuilly; you adopted humanity for your mother and right
for your father. You are about to die, that is to say to triumph, here.
Citizens, whatever happens to-day, through our defeat as well as
through our victory, it is a revolution that we are about to create.
As conflagrations light up a whole city, so revolutions illuminate the
whole human race. And what is the revolution that we shall cause? I have
just told you, the Revolution of the True. From a political point of
view, there is but a single principle; the sovereignty of man over
himself. This sovereignty of myself over myself is called Liberty. Where
two or three of these sovereignties are combined, the state begins. But
in that association there is no abdication. Each sovereignty concedes a
certain quantity of itself, for the purpose of forming the common right.
This quantity is the same for all of us. This identity of concession
which each makes to all, is called Equality. Common right is nothing
else than the protection of all beaming on the right of each. This
protection of all over each is called Fraternity. The point of
intersection of all these assembled sovereignties is called society.
This intersection being a junction, this point is a knot. Hence what
is called the social bond. Some say social contract; which is the same
thing, the word contract being etymologically formed with the idea of a
bond. Let us come to an understanding about equality; for, if liberty
is the summit, equality is the base. Equality, citizens, is not wholly a
surface vegetation, a society of great blades of grass and tiny oaks; a
proximity of jealousies which render each other null and void; legally
speaking, it is all aptitudes possessed of the same opportunity;
politically, it is all votes possessed of the same w